


cool step-dad/cool step-son 🌌 11/12

by fredastaire



Series: ⭐ 12 days of tyrus ⭐ [8]
Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: 12 Days of Tyrus, M/M, cyrus comes out/gets kinda outed/and then comes out for real, day eleven worst christmas/hanukkah ever, im a sucker for warm family stories!, tyrus is kinda there but mostly cyrus & his family, very messy but im proud
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 18:36:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17146961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fredastaire/pseuds/fredastaire
Summary: Sometimes even the holidays get messed up.





	cool step-dad/cool step-son 🌌 11/12

It was a mistake.

The entire day had been a mistake.

Cyrus sat on his bead, with his face buried in his arms. Someone knocked on his door, and jiggled the knob, but the door was locked. It was times like these he really appreciated having one of the only locks in the house that actually worked. Why did they not have working locks here?

He raised his head, and was mildly surprised to find that he'd started crying.

Cyrus usually tried his best not to make mistakes like this, because it was during Hanukkah and if you messed up you'd probably messed up a few of the next holidays, too.

The Goodman's dining room table: the scene of the crime. It had been a loud, energized scene. Cyrus' parents were placing food on the table, Cyrus' cousins were struggling to say seated. Cyrus, himself, was being pretty quiet, thinking about, oh, you know, the fact that he'd been dating TJ for a full two days, and, oh, you know, coming out to his parents. Stressful material.

You see, his thing was, coming out to his parents during Hanukkah wasn’t his ideal, because then he might associate it with stress and bad things. Better to pick a random day in February, right? But sometimes he felt like it was on the tip of his tongue and he could just get it over with.

“So, Cyrus, what’s been going on with you?” His step-dad asked, in his cool step-dad voice.

“Oh, yeah, stuff. Just things.” Cyrus’ mind immediately went to TJ when Todd asked what had been going on, because TJ had been going on, but for previously discussed reasons, he couldn’t talk about TJ.

“Incredibly descriptive.” Todd remarked, still in his cool step-dad voice.

Cyrus shrugged in response. Todd didn’t push, though, which Cyrus was grateful for, because he wasn’t sure what he would have said.

And then someone lit a match in the evening, by mistake, and it turned everything into a whole mess.

That someone was Cyrus’ mother, who he loved to bits and pieces. But sometimes things shouldn’t be said.

“So, you’ve been spending a lot of time with TJ?” She asked, and Cyrus’ father shot him a curious look.

“Who’s TJ?” He asked.

“Lots of questions.” Cyrus said, trying to avoid said questions, which was generally a very suspicious thing to do.

Cyrus’ father thought for a bit, and then he seemed to remember. “Oh, yes, TJ, your friend.”

“Yeah, my.. friend.”

Todd was the only one even a bit suspicious yet, which Cyrus considered a miracle of miracles, except for the fact that Todd didn’t stop staring him down for more than three minutes.

Finally, he turned to Todd, “Uh, hello?”

“Hello, Cyrus.” Todd said, except his voice wasn’t standard cool step-dad, it was thoughtful, as if he was thinking hard about something and very close to figuring it out.

Cyrus looked back at his plate and stabbed his food, quite violently.

“You can tell me anything.” Todd said, and then turned back to his own eating, so that was one unpredicted coming out, but he didn’t seemed alarmed. It was unsatisfying as a coming out because he’d never said anything, or even implied anything, and Todd had basically just jumped to conclusions. Conclusions that were right, but conclusions nonetheless.

And then, Todd took it upon himself to bring it up with Cyrus’ mother, when they thought they were being very quiet in the kitchen, post-dinner.

Cyrus froze, standing in the kitchen doorway, holding a dirty plate. He made his presence very known, by letting his plate clatter in the sink loudly, and then dashed up the stairs, leaving the other pair of his parents, cousins, aunt, and uncle, very confused.

It felt like the worst Hanukkah ever, and it felt like the entire family was judging him.

Cyrus was being a little bit dramatic. In these situations, he would call TJ, who would tell him, more or less, that he was being a little bit dramatic, and that it would be okay, and it usually was. Cyrus needed that kind of reassurance at this point. 

 

He dialed TJ's number and was met with a confused "Cy?" because they both knew that he was usually lounging about with his family right now.

"TJ, how do you restart an entire day?" Cyrus asked. He could hear shuffling and a sound that was presumably TJ sitting down.

"What happened?" TJ asked. This was how it was between them. TJ was ready to have Cyrus rely on him sometimes, Cyrus was ready to have TJ rely on him sometimes. 

So Cyrus retold the story, and TJ was mostly silent. 

"Your parents are probably worried about you in there. C'mon, Cy, they're psychiatrists. They wouldn't ever do anything to intentionally hurt you, and Todd probably only mentioned it to your mom because he was worried about how being gay and keeping it inside might affect your psyche, and just worried as a parent figure too." TJ said, choosing his words carefully and slowly. Cyrus was impressed at how much more logical and calm TJ seemed at that exact moment. He guessed emotions had really been clouding his judgement, which is something no one likes to admit. 

"Thanks, TJ," he said, looking at the door of his room, where he could hear voices floating in from outside. "I guess I just wasn't ready for people to figure it out or tell anyone yet."

"Well, then.. you don't have to. Just tell your parents you're okay, and you could tell them when you're really ready." 

"No, no, I think I'll tell them, formally." Cyrus said, swinging his legs over the side of his bed. "Especially since we're... y'know."

"Yeah. I know," he could hear TJ's smile in his voice. 

"I'm going to go down there now," he said, trying to sound confident.

"Good luck, Cyrus." TJ said.

And the call was over, and Cyrus could only hear and face the reality. He cracked his door open, and started to walk, as quietly as possible, down the stairs. When he was in the part of the staircase where people sitting in the living room or dining room could see him, he leaned over the side and waved to his younger cousins like he was waving from a boat, like he always did, and then continued down the stairs. When he locked eyes with his stepfather, he froze, and Cyrus raised his arm to wave awkwardly. Todd waved awkwardly back. 

The rest of their family was well invested in their own topics now, so he slipped in next to his mother and Todd, smiling weakly. 

"Are you alright?" His mother asked, and wrapped her arm around him and squeezed his shoulder. 

 

"Yeah. I talked to TJ," he said, trying to fix a trajectory for where he wanted the conversation to go. "and I promise if I don't feel alright I'd tell you. Except for sometimes, when maybe I need to figure things out myself."

It all sounded horribly rehearsed, but he didn't want to leave out anything he wanted to say. His mother turned him to face her, her hands on his shoulders, and whispered, "you're growing up so fast."

Cyrus took a deep breath in, and smiled back at her, and then looked behind her, at Todd, who was watching them. "And, Todd?" He said, putting on his best cool step-son voice, because it was too hard to say in his normal kid voice. "You were right. I  _ am _ gay." His voice got a little higher than intended, and he was sure some of the other family members heard. 

Todd smiled, and reached over to give Cyrus a cool step-dad pat on the head. Cyrus' mother looked between the two of them, smiling, and said, "I'll leave you guys." Because she was a psychiatrist, and psychiatrists sometimes knew when you needed a moment with someone. And parents, too. 

Cyrus and Todd sat side by side, quiet for a moment. 

"Is TJ your.. boyfriend?" Todd asked. Cyrus smiled to himself. He was trying.

"Well, I mean...," he started. His' phone vibrated in his pocket, and took it out to glance at the name on it. It was "t.j." like always, but now there was a little shooting star emoji next to it. "Yeah. I guess you could say that."

"Good for you, kid." Todd said, in you-already-know-what voice, but Cyrus knew he was thinking the same thing his mother had said.  _ You're growing up so fast.  _ They always did the cool step-dad and cool step-son voices and acts, but they both knew, that evening, they knew each other a bit more as humans. 

As family.

 


End file.
